Pub Crawl Prague

So,, I hear today is Christmas?? Yeah!? Well maybe in the U.S., but in the Czech Republic.. yesterday was Christmas!! So we had a delicious typical Czech dinner which included goulash, potatoes, cabbage, and duck. It was pretty good :p The giant beer was also yuummmyyy!! Today we did a tour of the city (Prague) and I learned all about its amazing and LENGTHY history. We saw a distant view of the castle which began its existance in the 800's!! (may do a tour tmw) We also did a tour of a Jewish 'museum' which consisted of a few cinegogs and a small jewish cemetary... very interesting stuff.

On another note, it really didnt feel like Christmas today. Other than the fact that I have realized how much I miss my family and friends!! Its quite sad because I have no contact with the people that are most important in my life right now either. Matthias is with his family in Germany, Ozi is also... Traesa left me! and Patrick is at home in Groningen..

Not to mention my family is thousands of miles away.. probably eating a delicious dinner that I would kill to taste.. sitting around a Christmas tree that I never realized the beauty of, and enjoying each other's smiles and laughs that I would kill to see and hear. (ok I'm guna cut the mushy stuff).. really I never realized how special the holidays are!! So to my family- know that I miss you so much and you should all be delighted to be in each other's presence.

Ok- so in order to try and forget what I'm missing today, me and the girls are going on a pub crawl!! I had a blast at the one in Berlin so I think another one in Prague is in order.

Wanna know something so funny!? 3 really strange coincidences have happened on our trip. On the train to Berlin, by chance, we met Alex's roommate on HIS WAY to Berlin! He lives in Berlin!! So he got to show us around! It was great to know a local, did I tell this story yet? Then to top it off, the second night we were there.. in our hostel, we met a student from Eastern Michigan University!! Talk about a small world... WOW!! All the way in Berlin!! Then today, on our tour of the city, we met 2 guys that we partied with in Berlin on that pub crawl! I dunno but I think that stuff is pretty strange.

So, I should go and get ready for this pub crawl. Unlimited shots, beers, hot wine, and rum n cokes for an hour!! WHHHEWW!! Then we will check out a few local clubs!! The guys from Berlin (Californians) will join us.. cool! Two twins that are pretty fun to hang with :)

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Goodnight,

G!nosa

Today Berlin, TMW Prague!!

Berlin was amazing! So much history! We did a walking tour, even tho it was icy, rainy, and freeeeeezing cold,, it was great! We learned all about the history of germany and the wall.. very interesting stuff!!! OMG!! I really like Berlin, maybe i will move here!! :p

So we did a bunch of shopping and went to a few christmas markets and ate some awesome food. We had an imbiß! Its like a döner kepab which i eat at home all the time.. they have them all over europe.. ooommmmggg soo yummy!!!! but theyre different in each country.. orr.. they each have their own style!

i had more currywurst, aannnddd... some roasted nuts, and hot spiced wine.. and.. chinese noodles from a street vendor! we walked down this fancy street where people wore furs, and drove fancy cars, and walked their little dogs with outfits on...

we also went shopping in a giant mall and pretended like we wanted to buy a fancy watch which was 80,000 euros!

oh i almost forgot...we met a friend on the train on the way here.. he is a real Berliner (lives in the city). He showed us around and did some translation for the really difficult german stuff hehe.. His name is Max and he is a really great guy!!! so sweet!!

we did a pub crawl last night and i drank a lot of german beers and jager shots!! hahahahaaaa it was fun!! we met some really cool people!

what else what else... we were really tired so we came home early to the hostel today.. tomorrow we wake up early and take a euroline bus to prague!!! We have a hotel with a nice flat screen tv so incase everything is closed on the 24th and 25th we can hang out, relax, take a bath and watch movies!

Ciao

Jen

RIP Brownie

yeah so about 2 days ago Brownie was stoel from outside my friends place :/ im not guna get too ,mushy about it but i am pretty sad.... I dont have a lot of time right now, should be entering Germany any min, so no more internet. BERLIN here i come!! I cant wait to eat some real german food and drink a COLD GIANT GERMAN BEER!! Heheheee :p I will write again... But so uu know thurs i will be in Prague!! Ich will ein deutches beer trinken! Omg i did it all by myself! Incase any of u weird family members get the urge to contact me, 0644429484 is my cell, look up the country code.. U may need a 31 in the beginning somewhere!
Tschausen!

Holy Carp!

So today there was about 6-7 inches of snow on the ground... the whole city pretty much went crazy and shut down... no buses, no school, post office closed, the works!! Its so funny.. no one can drive a car or bike.. its like they're freakin out man!! HEHEHA

I love it... reminds me a bit of the first snow at home.. when people can't freakin drive and make a big deal out of it. Except here I think it happens like this every time it snows cuz its so rare.

Either way.. I finished a bunch of work on my case study and decided on my final trip for Christmas. It will be Berlin, Prague, followed by Vienna and then Dusseldorf back to home.

So Ciao Bellas its late and I will be hitting the hay shortly.

P.S. Thanks for the comments on my last blog and check out this geil video :p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qHVVbYG8Y

White Christmas

Hay blog-lovers. Sorry for the large gap in between my posts. This week has been veerrryyyy lazzyyyy for me! I didnt have so much homework to do.. so I did a lot of laying around, a bit of shopping, sleeping, watching movies, and eating! I guess it felt kind of good.. Perhaps I felt I had nothing exciting to post.. I still dont really!!

Well I did get a new bike! My bike's name is Brownie. I love my new bike! I really took my time and systematically negotiated to get a great price on her. 65 euros when they tried to tell me she was worth 95! Whhheewww! I see negotiating as one of my new found skillz :p

So tomorrow we will book and finalize our trip for Christmas. I know for sure that I'm going to Berlin, and I think also Prague.. but not sure about after that... *hhmmmm* I will let you all know!

School is going pretty smoothly.. right now I have some down time.. Just finishing up a paper which is due on Friday.. and working on another case study due on January the 8th. For New Years it looks as though I will be either staying here for a friend's house party, or perhaps high-tailing to Amsterdam.. not sure what yet. Some other plans have recently backfired.

I had a great night on Monday! I went over to winsho for an awesome pre-gaming party.. we played flippy cup and circle of death-- for u older folks, those are both drinking games! ;)

Then we went into the city for the ESN's Christmas party at one of my favorite bars - The Pacific. I had a great time and knew so many people! They were all international students..

I'm kind of wondering what I'm going to do once my school is finished.. At first I was contemplating an internship here, but that will prolong my studies. Receiving my MBA will be pushed back *sigh*. Perhaps I will come back home and finish up school. Honestly, I can't wait to FINALLY, REALLY,, FULLYYYY graduate! I thought I was already done! Really, never knew I was going to grad school! But here I am again, back in the saddle! Don't get me wrong! I am thoroughly enjoying myself here being a student. But at times these case studies, theories, final exams, and literature reviews can sure take their toll!

In the end, I will make a decision between an internship at a really awesome company, or returning home to finish up classes... I believe if I can find a great reason to stay here (freakin awesome internship), it just may happen.

Actually, I had to say goodbye to my good friend Traesa on Monday :( She went back home to New York. We had a good night tho, and I will miss her.. Even more sad is the fact that so many other people are also leaving at this time.

As of now, the thought of returning back to my old life sounds horrendous!! LOL!!! Sorry to say but how boring... doing the same things over and over and over...So when I do come back, things will be different!! I will make sure of that!

Ok... I just got back from the movies with D (Matthias) and Ozi. We saw Avatar and it was freakin great!! Love it! Now I should be doing some reading so tomorrow my brain will be teaming with great conclusions regarding cross-cultural differences between China and the U.S. and how they inhibited the success of eBay China! WHEW!

So sleep well and I promise to post soon. Besides I leave on Monday for a week long Christmas Voyage through Europe!! Woooooo!!

Yours,

Cookie

P.S. The pictures above are of Brownie. I love her so much because she is so comfortable to ride!! The handle bars are truly amazing.. Sometimes I feel like I'm driving a car, LOL. Or maybe its my brain's silly attempt to put me back into one of my old comfortable places :/

Also included a picture of D having fun in the snow.. seems as though he is always doing something energetic, crazy, silly, or exciting!! At the same time he keeps me busy... (I took these pictures just a few hours ago)

P.S.S. The title of this post "White Christmas" is because it snowed today! Which really reminded me of home because I guess it rarely snows here..

Ciao~

Here, There, Everywhere!

Here is the correct translation of my last post:

"I go to Germany. I visit the Christmas market. I will home on Saturday."

"I'm very awesome!"

"yyyyyeeaaahhhh"

"Bye / Peace out!"

'Ich bin geil' can either mean I am horny or I am awesome.. It depends on the context.. in this case I meant I am awesome.. hehe.. but anyway.. yeah the Germans say Geil all the freakin time.. and mentally I do too hehe... just not out loud..

I also say 'WAS IST DAS PASSWORT!??" -- heheahehahe.. funny inside joke from Beerfest movie..

Anyway, so Bremen was pretty okay... I think I would like to check out another Christmas market in Germany sometime hopefully soon :) The club in Bremen was pretty crazy! I think I went to bed at 7am or something, and had to get up at 10 :/ So the next day was rough.. But I got to try some currywurst! And for sausage, it was delicious!!! :) Can't wait till I visit Berlin!!!

I've been thinking of writing this in my blog for a while.. I CANT TELL YOU how often conversation revolves around language.. its SO COMMON. ALways people are talking about different languages, which ones you speak, how they sound, how you say this or that, whats your mother tongue, which ones are you learning.. WOW its really amazing how often conversations are about language.. maybe.. 10% of the time, no joke.

Last night I met up with a girl from Canada that I met in the line to pick up my residence permit a couple weeks ago.. totally random but she overheard me talking to someone and its rare to hear an American or Canadian accent so we started talking.

Shes been all over the world and is living here becuase her American bf from Cali is playing basketball for the Netherlands.. Shes kind of.. uhm.. I dunno a socialite..?? Yeah.. for sure.. She likes fabulous things and .. so I guess its cool to have a friend like that! We had fun and it was a completely random night! We went to a coffee shop, and the red light district! Then we had some beers and a Döner! Yuuummmm..

Today I will work on my Christmas package for the fam, YES YOU SHOULD BE EXCITED! I have collected a bunch of presents from my travels and will send them all in a large package.. :)

Tomorrow I meet Alex for coffee and we will decide where we are going for Christmas.. perhaps somewhere warm!? Alex is the girl I came here with, she also goes to EMU. I haven't seen much of her since I've been here... but her sister is coming to visit and the 3 of us will do some traveling.

Anyway, I think I'm going to head to the Vismarkt now for some shopping.. haven't had much food in my fridge l8ly so its time to stock up!!

Miss you all!

Jenny

P.S., My life feels like a GIANT VACATION!!! How did things get so good?!?! :D I don't think I'm going to let this end!

P.S.S., I am still working on the Amsterdam/Bremen video and hope to post it soon!

Bremen, Deutschland

Ich gehe zum Duetschalnd. Ich besuche Der Weihnachtsmarkt. Ich werde am Samstag zum hause sein.

Ich bin sehr geil!

yyyyyyyeeaaahhh

tschausen!

CookieZ

Sinterklaas

SSoooo.. I think I may meet Sinterklaas tonight.. as well as one of his Zwartes. I went to the post office yesterday to find out where my package was at. Mom sent me one about a week and a half ago and I still haven't received it. The lady said that Sinterklaas is backing up the post office. It takes about 4-6 weeks for a package to be sent.

So if you are interested in sending me something.. now would be a good time! hehe..
I will send my christmas package to you all within the next few days.

If you want to send me something-- here is a short list:
Zip lock bags
Mac lengthening mascara
black socks
my black boots that mom can't find
perfume
and uhm, thats all I can think of right now.. but if I can think of anything soon, i will post it.

I've made a couple comments to recent posts and will try to do so more often.

Please check them out!

*Cookie*

Scotland / Edinburgh Video

Hay Guys!

So I'm back home now.. just doing some unpacking and beginning work on a case study for Advanced International Business - Industrial Relations Stream. Yeah man.

I leave for Bremen Friday evening. I will be checking out the Christmas market there with some great friends. I was in Eindhoven over this past weekend.. after my trip to Amsterdam. Ooohhh I know a bit confusing-- all of this traveling I've been doing.. you never know where I am!! :) hehe... Its great though!

So I will try to type out a bit of what I did in Edinburgh... When I first arrived I was a bit nervous. I spent about a day traveling there all by myself. And when I arrived initially I was supposed to be picked up from the airport. I called my friends, no answer. So i get a TXT back (sigh).. go to your hostel and we'll call u l8r

Have to say at that moment I was a bit freaked out and scared. To make a long story short I had to con my way into a breakfast meeting with my friends the next morning--but from there out it was a lot of fun. My friend's Aunt 'Ellen' was soooo hilarious! A very outgoing and friendly young lady of 69! She was greaT!! A very gracious host, vivacious and fuuuullll of life! She loved to go to the bars, clubbing, meeting with friends, drinking tea and eating crumpets, and of course drinking!! She had a funny accent and sometimes it was hard to understand her.

My friends and I took a tour of the city and learned some amazing things. I could really type up a whole book about all of the interesting stuff..

The cars in Edinburgh are insane! In Groningen, they will always stop for pedestrians or bikers.. like way ahead of time and always let you go first. In edinburgh we got warned that we may get run over. So make sure you hit the crosswalk button and WAIT until it turns green!! hehe.. it was so true!! I couldn't believe it!

We climbed up a pretty tall hill and took some amazing pictures. It was gorgeous and what you would imagine scotland to look like. The walk wasnt easy and we were cold and wet on our walk down. We got some awseome hot chocolate!

Seemed like the girls took extra effort to look beautiful in scotland, they kind of needed it LOL. But unfortunately with so much extra makeup, ridiculous clothes, and crazy hair.. it was just WAY too much. The girls in Groningen are much more naturally beautiful and keep it that way. haha.. so true.

Mmm.. what else...

Well you can check out this video:
Here

Ok a bit about Amsterdam / Eindhoven

I had a GREAT time in Amsterdam!! We went with the ESN - so everything was organized. From our city tour, to our boat tour, to the Heineken brewery! It was great! We even had free time to do some shopping and check out another museum! We also got a chance to party! And it was amazing :) I can't wait to go back and have more time to really check out the city! Also the food was delish!

Eindhoven was fun too. A much smaller city.. we did some shopping, relaxing, eating, chilling, walking.. and got a chance to check out another city in the Netherlands.

So.. I will be posting a video with the pics soon.. and I will also try to post one from Bremen.

The weekend after Bremen I'm going to Den Haag and then probably Dusseldorf Germany. Then I'm not sure where I'm going for Christmas but I will be doing some more traveling..

Anyone buy their plane tix yet!?
WOOHOOOO!!

Much love,

Jaypoo